"Just one thing after another" - Unknown

Xelele

A trip inside the paintings of Alex-Keller Fonseca.

“A semblance of an ancient man appeared on the classroom wall, painted by the glow of a projector beam. We were a group of students seated on the cushions spread on the floor. The room darkened, whispers subsided, and the professor slowly began to speak of the Egyptian astronomer Πτολεμαῖος. For a 15-year-old interested in the arts it was magical. Eyeing wide-eyed towards the painting I felt my imagination light up as the image before us flickered and brush-strokes seemed to fade away. It was now as if I was taking part in the incredible adventures of the man in the portrait, wandering through the night, my eyes fixed on the sky in search of stars.

Mesmerised by the voice in the headphones, I'd felt the same at art museums. The attraction less the paintings themselves but fascinated by the stories inside the artworks. As the storytelling professor had taught me, wake canvases to life, and we can create new ways to experience art, understand and learn from it.”

— Kris Haamer

This was the birth of Wê.

At Earth's heart, on the crossroads of the 0-meridian and the equator lies a 14-million-year-old volcanic island that's never been a part of any continent. In her mids, 6500 feet of steepness, towers mountain Pico de São Tomé, surrounded by the ancient Ôbo rainforest, that due to its isolation, is one of the most important endemic biodiversity hotspots in the world.

Gil Neves (13) lives with is mom at the edge of the forest and often skips school to roam the Ôbo and hunt birds with his only friend the slingshot. One day he meets an ornithologist. Together they set on a search looking for an endemic bird species, the reclusive Celêlê-mangochi. When Gil returns from the Ôbo, he's no longer aimless and wants to study biology in order to better understand the birds.

Mariana Lopes (17) receives an unexpected love letter from an unknown admirer. Days later at her birthday party the school's playboy says it was his. But was it?

Alex-Keller Fonseca (29) walks the streets of São Tomé, meeting his friends, the artists Dio Lima, Catita Dias, Olie Ribeiro, Jesus Quaresma, Leonel Varela, et al. having artistic discussions. “Through my paintings I try to express the everyday life of Mother Africa and her rebirth. With all her suffering and insecurity whose traditions will be reborn in the world through children.” — Alex-Keller Fonseca

The stories were written in the summer of 2013 by Gilberto Ceita and Edneyse Coelho won the Wê writing contest.

Why?

Promote São Tomé and Príncipe.

Inspire and attract new audiences to art.

Call To Action

Here's an open invitation to help make this project happen. Thus far the project has been supported by a number of people standing behind previous Estonian success stories with 15,000€. To finish Wê we're raising 50,000€.